More on the dragons ..........

AN OVERVIEW AND SUMMARY OF THE SEVEN DRAGONS

Arrogance Dragon

The fear of vulnerability as well as the fear of being judged negatively; confusion over self-worth. People with this dragon swing from feeling inflated and special to experiencing puncture and deflation.  Their fear pattern includes aloofness, shyness, remoteness, performance, anxiety, false personas, vanity, criticalness and narcissism.  They attempt to be perfect in others’ eyes, and were compared to high standards as children.

Self-Deprecation Dragon

The fear of being inadequate or poorly equipped for life; low self-esteem, sometimes called an inferiority complex.  People with this dragon have a fear pattern that includes cringing, apologizing, shrinking, self-deflation, and inner criticism.  They avoid criticism by criticizing themselves first, and were put down as children.

Impatience Dragon

The fear that time will run out. People with this dragon rush, are intolerant, experience heavy stress, try to do too much in too short a time and are constantly in future fantasies.  They are not present, can be accident prone, and were deprived of experience as children.

Martyrdom Dragon

The fear of being trapped by circumstances or outside forces. People with this dragon complain, whine, act ‘poor me’ and are oriented toward being victims.  They are excellent at creating guilt in those around them, and were forced to be constantly obedient as children.

Greed Dragon

The fear that there is not enough to go around.  People with this dragon have a fear pattern that expresses itself in addictive behaviour, hoarding, coveting, amassing or depriving themselves and others.  Their greed tends to fixate on food, power, sex, wealth, or something.  They were abandoned as children.

Self-destruction Dragon

The fear of losing control.  People with this dragon are addictive, violent and suicidal.  They exhibit wild behaviour or desperate self-sabotage.  They may not live long because they cannot find meaning to life.  As children, they were abused and abandoned.

Stubbornness Dragon

The fear of authority and sudden change.  People with this dragon have a fear pattern that is expressed in rebelliousness, rigidity, obstinacy, argumentativeness, hardheaded behaviour, a refusal to listen and a refusal to submit.  They try to slow down events to buy time.  As children, they were given no options and were forced to do what they were told.

THE DRAGONS AND BOUNDARIES

Each of the dragons alter’s people boundaries in significant ways.

Arrogance

Arrogant people create rigid boundaries around themselves to wall themselves off from hurt and criticism.  When they are in doubt about their self-worth, or if they are shy, they retreat from others.  They can also fall into intrusiveness when they assume too much importance and disregard the boundaries of others. 

Self-deprecation

People with self-deprecation are notorious for their lack of boundaries.  They are in doubt about their value and their right to be alive, so they tend to omit necessary boundaries, letting others do as they please with them. 

 Their primitive form of boundary is a brittle defensiveness that falls apart easily.  They hardly ever intrude on others’ boundaries.

Impatience

Impatient people push through others’ boundaries in order to hurry them up.  They also tend to have a very poor sense of where they are.  Their boundaries can be elusive but are by no means completely absent.

 Martyrdom

Martyred people are calculating about how they allow others to intrude upon them.  They appear to have no boundaries at all, but they actually have more control than they show.  They make a business out of relinquishing their boundaries.

Greed

Greedy people are famous for intruding on others and failing to respect others’ boundaries.  However, they defend themselves against receiving and place too many rigid boundaries on themselves.  That is the deprivation side of greed.

 Self-Destruction

Self-destructive people have a dual approach to boundaries.  They are difficult to reach and have rigid defenses against intimacy.  However, they tend to be sloppy about respecting others’ boundaries and they intrude on others in violent ways.

 Stubbornness

People with stubbornness have rigid, inflexible boundaries.  They draw their lines in the sand over arbitrary issues that are typically fears of oppression projected onto others.  If others crash through their brittle boundaries, they can become deeply depressed or overwhelmed with despair.  Stubborn people do not necessarily invade others’ boundaries;  they are more protective of their own.

 The following dragons are the effect or symptom of the active dragon in your psyche.

Action Dragons

Dragons that stop constructive action : martyrdom and impatience

Assimilation Dragon

The dragon that stops absorption of information : Stubbornness

Expressions Dragon

Dragons that stop expression : self-destruction and greed

Inspiration Dragon

Dragons that stop inspiration : self-deprecation and arrogance

Narrow-focused dragon

Personality fear patterns (dragons) that narrow people’s sphere of influence : martyrdom, self-deprecation and self-destruction

MENTAL AND EMOTIONAL DYSFUNCTIONS RESULTING FROM THE ACTIVITIES OF THE DRAGONS

Pervasive developmental disorders -

Autistic disorder : stubbornness

Specific developmental disorders -

Mostly stubbornness and impatience

Disruptive behaviour disorders –

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder : impatience

Conduct disorders : mostly self-destruction

Oppositional defiant disorder : stubbornness

Sadism : self-destruction

Voyeurism : greed, arrogance

Sexual disfunctions –

Hypoactive sexual desire disorder : greed

Sexual aversion disorder : stubbornness, arrogance

Female sexual arousal disorder : impatience, stubbornness, arrogance

Male erectile disorder : impatience, stubbornness, arrogance

Inhibited orgasm : stubbornness, martyrdom

Premature ejaculation : impatience

Sleep disorders –

Insomnia : impatience, martyrdom

Factitious disorders – martyrdom

Impulse control disorders –

Intermittent explosive disorder : self-destruction, greed

Kleptomania : self-destruction, greed

Gambling : self-destruction, greed

Pyromania : self-destruction, greed

Personality Disorders –

Paranoid : arrogance, martyrdom

Schizoid : self-deprecation

Schizotypal : arrogance, self-deprecation

Antisocial : self-destruction

Borderline : self-destruction, arrogance, self-deprecation, impatience, greed

Narcisistic : greed, arrogance

Avoidant : self-deprecation

Dependant : self-deprecation

Obsessive compulsive : arrogance, stubbornness

Passive-aggressive : stubbornness, martyrdom

 Extracted from the book Conquering your Dragons by Jose Stephens.